Nicholls athletic director Jonathan Terrell posted photos such as this on social media as the Colonels’ football team and staff endured a 22-hour stay at Veterans Airport in downstate Marion. (X/Twitter photo)
By Dan Verdun
Hours after losing its first-round FCS playoff game at Southern Illinois, the Nicholls Colonels football team faced what university president Jay Clune called an “unacceptable situation” in its attempt to return home to Thibodaux, La.
Nicholls players and staff were stranded at Veterans Airport in Marion, unable to board their flight back home. Social media began chronicling the Colonels’ plight, which began around 6:15 p.m. CST Saturday following a 35-0 loss to SIU.
The problem, according to Nicholls athletic director Jonathan Terrell, was due to various unforeseen circumstances. Terrell was critical on social media outlet X/Twitter of the NCAA, which handled the team’s travel plans.
Nicholls, the Southland Conference champion, wound up spending the next 22 hours at the airport before finally getting on a flight and arriving back on its campus shortly before 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
In the interim, Southern Illinois University personnel – including head coach Nick Hill, director of football operations Elizabeth Toth, defensive coordinator Antonio James and video coordinator Chris Gillepsie – lent helping hands.
Hill first learned of the situation in the wee hours of Sunday morning when he and his wife Alicia were up early with their 6-month-old daughter.
“She gets up pretty early. (Babies) don’t care if you’ve got a game the night before or whatever, or if you want to sleep in,” Hill said Monday. “I was on social media and saw that they were still in the airport.”
Hill and his staff reached out to Nicholls director of football operations Katie Callahan and head coach Tim Rebowe.
“We saw that they were without drinks and all that kind of stuff,” Hill said. “I was in Du Quoin and they (Toth, James and Gillespie) were here in Carbondale, so they got a bunch of things together that we had in the building.”
Toth headed to a local Wal-Mart to get more supplies. Hill went to a McDonald’s to get Rebowe “a big coffee and a bunch of sausage egg biscuits” and delivered them to the airport.
“(We) really just (offered) some moral support and let them know whatever we could do to help out,” Hill said.
In addition, Southland commissioner Chris Grant also helped to get more water and food to the stranded party throughout Sunday.
The Nicholls community was grateful for the Good Samaritan gesture.
Hill, a former player both at SIU and in Arena football, understands the exasperation of the situation.
“We’ve been there,” he said. “It’s frustrating, but to be in an airport for almost 24 hours . . . The Marion airport is not very big. It’s not like you’re in an airport that you can walk around and find something to do. Yeah, it was frustrating.”
Dan Verdun is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin. He has written four books: NIU Huskies Football, EIU Panthers Football, ISU Redbirds Football and SIU Salukis Football.
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